The Mastery Program Curriculum: All Three Parts, Section by Section
Every section is named on our public syllabus. This is the plain-English version of what each part is for.
Three parts, 48 sections, and a clear job for each part. Part 1 teaches you to paint. Part 2 turns that into a style that’s yours. Part 3 turns the style into a career.
Every section name below is on our public syllabus, so you can read the whole structure before you spend anything.
Part 1: Drawing, Acrylic and Oil Foundations
Eighteen sections, and they’re in build order rather than interest order, which matters more than it sounds.
You start with pencil and contour drawing, then proportion and measuring. Acrylic brushwork comes next, then value and shading, charcoal, and composition. Oil begins at section six and takes up most of what follows: color theory, brush care, subtractive underpainting where you tone the canvas dark and lift the light back out, glazing, alla prima still life.
Then the harder things. Gesture drawing, foreshortening, fat over lean, perspective and cityscapes, impressionism, limited palettes, abstract-realism florals, portrait from life, self-portrait, and expressive figurative work.
Drawing comes first because everything after it is easier once you can see accurately. Students who skip ahead to oil discover the same problem from the other end, and it costs them more time than the drawing would have.
Part 2: Mixed Media, Personal Aesthetic and Authentic Expression
Twelve sections, and this is the part people don’t know they need until they’re in it.
Each section pairs a new medium with identity work, so you’re building a style while you learn a material rather than doing technical exercises and hoping a voice shows up later. Paper and art history. Inks, alongside writing your own style recipe. Spray paint. Mark making and symbolism. Collage. Non-objective abstract. Abstract realism, including making your own source images instead of painting from someone else’s photograph. Expressionistic oil mixed media. Intuitive painting with no reference at all. Whimsical and narrative work. Decorative art and licensing.
The last section closes the loop: you write your style recipe and paint a series in it.
Gold leaf, symbolism and archetypes all live in here too. If Part 1 is about accuracy, Part 2 is about deciding what you want to do with it.
Part 3: Thirty Paintings, Marketing and Launching Your Career
Eighteen sections, built around producing a body of roughly thirty paintings, which is where the part gets its name.
The business content is specific rather than motivational. Portfolio direction. Pricing for gallery representation and pricing when you sell yourself, which are different problems. Four business models to choose between. Outreach. Collecting email addresses and writing to your list. Commissions, including how to write a commission sheet. Prints and how to sell them. Licensing. Your artist bio and statement. Websites and landing pages. Content and branding. Framing and varnishing. Photographing artwork properly. Packaging and shipping, which is where a lot of first sales go wrong. Bookkeeping basics. Taxes and licenses.
Most art education stops at the moment a person becomes competent, which is exactly the moment they have no idea what to do next. This part is the answer to that.
What’s finished and what’s still arriving?
Parts 1 and 2 are complete and in students’ hands.
Part 3, the business section, is partly in the app and the rest is still being added. If you’re starting at section one of Part 1, you’ll be months away from Part 3 when you enroll, so for most students this changes nothing. If you already paint well and want to go straight to the business lessons, email info@milanart.com and ask what’s posted before you buy.
What comes with the lessons
Two years of group coaching, included on every plan: weekly Zoom calls, plus written feedback from a coach on every piece you post. The private student community. And the bonus content, covering the Essentials Courses and the Masterclasses.
The coaching matters more in a curriculum this long than it does in a short course. Forty-eight sections is a lot of chances to build a bad habit without noticing, and feedback is what catches it in week three instead of month nine.
Supplies
Bought separately, and worth budgeting for honestly. Our kits are matched to the curriculum: $460 for Part 1 Kit 1, $350 for Kit 2, $490 for Kit 3, $425 for the Part 2 mixed media kit, or $1,244 for all of them together. You can source your own materials and plenty of students do.
Why the order is what it is
The sequence is the opinionated part, and it’s worth explaining because it’s where we differ from most programs.
Most art courses group by medium: a watercolor course, an oil course, a portrait course. We group by what a skill needs underneath it. Value before color, because color choices you can’t see the value of will look muddy no matter how good the pigment is. Drawing before painting, because a painting built on a bad drawing has a problem no brushwork fixes. Technique before style, because a voice needs something to speak with.
That’s also why the mixed media part sits in the middle rather than at the end as a bonus. Trying materials is how most people find out what they actually want to make, and doing that after you can already draw and paint means you’re choosing rather than flailing.
And the business part comes last because it has to. Pricing a painting requires paintings. The section asks you to build toward thirty of them for exactly that reason: a portfolio is the thing every business lesson in Part 3 operates on.
One thing to know before you compare syllabuses
The section names on our enrollment page and the names inside the course library don’t always match word for word, because the course was rebuilt more recently than the page. “Voice & Inks, Finding Your Style Recipe” on the syllabus is “Inks, Style Recipe & Finding Your Aesthetic” inside the course. Same content, different label, and we’re tidying it.
If you want to compare us with another program, compare the structure rather than the section titles. What matters is whether a program takes you from a pencil to a priced painting, and how much of it is spent on the half that comes after you can already paint well.
Frequently asked questions
How many sections are in the Mastery Program?
Forty-eight, split across three parts: 18 sections in Part 1, 12 in Part 2 and 18 in Part 3. Every one of them is named on the public syllabus on our enrollment page, so you can read the whole structure before you buy anything.
What does Part 1 cover?
Technique, in build order. Pencil and contour drawing, proportion and measuring, acrylic brushwork, value and shading, charcoal and composition, then oil from section six onward: color theory, brush care, subtractive underpainting, glazing, alla prima still life, gesture drawing, foreshortening, fat over lean, perspective and cityscapes, impressionism, limited palettes, abstract-realism florals, portrait from life, self-portrait and expressive figurative work.
What does Part 2 actually do?
It pairs a new medium with work on your own style in each section, so every exercise also moves your voice forward. Paper and art history, inks and writing your own style recipe, spray paint, mark making and symbolism, collage, non-objective abstract, abstract realism and making your own source images, expressionistic oil mixed media, intuitive painting with no reference, whimsical and narrative work, decorative art and licensing, and a closing section where you write your style recipe and paint a series in it.
What's in the business section?
Portfolio direction, pricing for gallery representation and for selling yourself, four business models to choose between, outreach, collecting email addresses and writing to your list, commissions and commission sheets, prints and how to sell them, licensing, your artist bio and statement, websites and landing pages, content and branding, framing and varnishing, photographing artwork, packaging and shipping, bookkeeping basics, and taxes and licenses.
Is the whole program available now?
Parts 1 and 2 are finished and released. Part 3, the business section, is partly in the app and the rest is still being added. Most students reach Part 3 months after they start, because Parts 1 and 2 come first.
Who teaches it?
The four owners are the named instructors: Elli Milan, John Milan, Dimitra Milan and Jake Dunn. Individual lessons are also taught by working artists and program graduates, including Rita Vicari on collage and Casey Wakefield on abstract work, both of whom are profiled as graduates on our site.
Do I need to buy supplies?
Yes, and separately. Supply kits matched to the curriculum are on the Milan Art Store: $460 for Part 1 Kit 1, $350 for Kit 2, $490 for Kit 3, $425 for the Part 2 mixed media kit, or $1,244 for the bundle. You can source your own materials instead and many students do.
